Route reliability record
MCO→IAH
Orlando to Houston
- Flights
- 3,569
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 854 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,569 MCO to IAH flights, of which United Airlines flew 2,444 at 85.4% on time.
Best time to fly MCO to IAH: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.5%, against 83.5% for the route overall.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 85.4% on time across 2,444 flights.
Key figures
On time
83.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,529 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.01%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
85.4% on time across 2,444 flights
These figures cover 3,569 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 15 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MCO to IAH
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.4% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 77.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 545 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,444 | 85.4% | 79 min | 0.57% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 580 | 81.0% | 74 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 545 | 77.7% | 67 min | 3.12% | B− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on MCO to IAH
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Orlando to Houston
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MCO → IAHOrlando to Houston | United Airlines | 84.9% | 85.4% | 0.57% | 11am–2pm, Wed | UA 2406 14:06 |
| 2. MCO → IAHOrlando to Houston | Frontier Airlines | 80.3% | 81.0% | 0.86% | 5am–8am, Thu | F9 3469 16:36 |
| 3. MCO → IAHOrlando to Houston | Spirit Airlines | 75.3% | 77.7% | 3.12% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. MCO → HOUOrlando to Houston | Southwest Airlines | 74.8% | 75.6% | 1.07% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am679 flights92.3%
- 8am–11am557 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm638 flights92.3%
- 2pm–5pm696 flights77.6%
- 5pm–8pm784 flights73.5%
- 8pm–5am215 flights74.0%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.3% of the time, against 73.5% for the evening window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 784 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCO to IAH by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On MCO to IAH, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.3% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 73.5%, a wide gap of 18.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.3%
- 8–11am87.8%
- 11am–2pm92.3%
- 2–5pm77.6%
- 5–8pm73.5%
- 8pm–5am74.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 18 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 72.9% on time, 18 points below September, the best at 91.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. March was the busiest month here, with 366 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.3%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 44,000 reported delay minutes.
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%National Airspace System
- 27%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 44,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 43,970 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.01% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 854 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 83.2% on time across 3,569 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,569 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in IAH after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 91.0% on time and July 72.9%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,529 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCO to IAH questions
How often is MCO to IAH delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.5% of the 3,569 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on MCO to IAH?
United Airlines leads at 85.4% on time across 2,444 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 77.7%, a gap of 8 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MCO to IAH?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.5%, 19 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on MCO to IAH?
July is the weakest month at 72.9% on time, compared with 91.0% in September. Across the year that is 18 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to MCO — the return legseparate record
- Orlando International (MCO) delay statistics
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- United Airlines on MCO to IAH85.4%
- Frontier Airlines on MCO to IAH81.0%
- Spirit Airlines on MCO to IAH77.7%
- MCO to ATL, a related route74.9%
- ORD to IAH, a related route76.0%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- United Airlines on-time record85.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record81.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record77.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. MCO to IAH and IAH to MCO are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.